Thomson Delivers the Best Broadband Experience to the Digital Home at CES 2008

owerful broadband home networking ecosystem with more multi-play devices; Google Phone partnership; New HD Content Management & Distribution Platform

Paris, France/Las Vegas – At CES this week, Thomson (Euronext 18453; NYSE: TMS), a world leader in media and communications technologies, will demonstrate major enhancements to its end-to-end offering of broadband multiple-play solutions and services, already available to media, communication and Internet broadband network operators.

These include major enhancements to Thomson’s home networking ecosystem. Thomson is therefore entering service provider qualifications for its intelligent broadband-based hub platform, the Advanced Cable Gateway (ACG) – which provides a universal platform for fully customizable multiple-play services for network operators – as well as availability of an expanded set of IP services to the ACG’s range of voice and video-connected products.

“We’re proud to demonstrate at CES the full extent of our home ecosystem and innovative multiple-play offerings and to making them available to all players,” said Jacques Dunogué, Senior Executive Vice President of the Systems Division within Thomson. “With the introduction of the ACG for instance, we make true quadruple play available to cable operators. Based on the success of this universal platform hub concept in the global telco environments we believe that the ACG will soon become the true hub of the cable-connected home.”

As part of its complete and expanding ecosystem of home-connected devices, Thomson will also highlight several multiple-play services and products, including:

As the result of a partnership announced with Google, Thomson will be the first manufacturer to offer home telephones with a one-touch auto-dial connection to GOOG-411, Google’s free, voice-activated, business directory assistance service. Available in April, the GOOG-411 button will be incorporated on more than a dozen GE-branded DECT 6.0™ phones.

The award winning InfoLink phone, which receives RSS feeds of news, weather, and sports information via broadband; The Symbio DECT phone whose HD Sound capability delivers twice the frequency range of conventional handsets – and which can be used as an Internet radio/RSS reader and controller for both the Thomson Music Box appliance as well as the Thomson Portable InfoCenter for delivering IPTV and VoD services throughout the home;

Other Thomson multiple-play-enabling devices featured at CES this week include integrated triple play HD set-top boxes and personal video recorders, and VoIP-enabled cable modems. Additionally, Thomson’s silicon solutions will feature cost-efficient, optimized semiconductor solutions for set-top boxes, personal video recorders, and a variety of other network applications.

End-to-end delivery architecture

Ensuring that network operators have a content head-end encoder that will enable them to deliver the kind of high-quality experiences that subscribers expect in their homes, on their mobile devices, and through the Internet, Thomson will also feature an end-to-end delivery architecture based on a breakthrough video distribution technology and a software platform that are well suited for mobile and Internet TV. This architecture includes the industry’s most versatile video processors and encoders to deliver more high-quality channels over less bandwidth, and to easily add localized content and ad insertions. It also includes the world-leading SmartVision management software that enables operators to provide their customers with an unmatched interactive viewing experience.

Electronic Distribution, Retail Solutions

Also present at CES, Thomson’s Services Division, under its brand Technicolor, will demonstrate its Prisma™ Full Spectrum Content Delivery Platform. Through its Premier Retail Networks (PRN) business, Thomson details enhancements to its end-to-end networking solution – including head-end and interactive TV software platforms, and introduces the first high-definition content management and distribution platform, its Best Picture™ solution.


About Thomson — World leader in digital video technologies
Thomson (Euronext Paris: 18453; NYSE: TMS) provides technology, services, and systems to help its Media, Entertainment & Communications clients – content creators, content distributors and users of its technology – realize their business goals and optimize their performance in a rapidly changing technology environment. For more information: http://www.thomson.net.